Machupicchu: Photos!!

Sara made it to Huaynapicchu and is now enjoying the views with some stranger!

The postcard photo. Huaynapicchu is the mountain in the back right. The city is devided by the green series of plazas. To our right (out of frame) is steep terracing that runs the whole height of the site.

This one is of Sara huffing her way up Huaynapicchu, she is so close to the top!

An example of Incan genius. One solid rock to the right with stone steps laid into the carved part. They planed the entire site around the lay of the land.

Sara´s friends eating at the Machupicchu Buffett

Thinking about how to get down from her. (you cannot see it now, but I am wearing a shirt with Obama´s face on it. It was nice of him to take time off to visit MP with us. I got some comments about the shirt as well)

A Incan window. It is trapazoidal to give it extra strength to hold up to the frequent earthquakes in the area.

Sara living on the edge. Below that step, which is a 600 year old rock jutting out of a wall, is a 1000m or so drop.

Incan terracing, this is an example of an incan neighborhood. notice the stonework is a little more rough.

On top on Huaynapicchu! That zig-zagging road to the left is the bus path to MP. All of MP is on the right.

An example of finer Incan stonework, notice the window shape.

To the midright of this photo is the temple of the sun. It is crafted with quartz in the finest stonework found at MP. What is impressive is if the stones are quartz, they needed to find other stones that were stronger than quartz to carve them. The temple is complete with a basement and series of underground tunnels. There is also a finely carved alter below.